Bolzano (Bozen)

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Overview

Bolzano, the provincial capital of South Tyrol, is anything but provincial. Once a stop on the coach route between Italy and the flourishing Austro-Hungarian Empire, this small city is worldly and engaged, a long-time conduit between cultures that has more recently become home to Europe's first trilingual university. Its quality of life – one of Italy's highest – is reflected in its openness, youthful energy and an all-pervading greenness. A stage-set-pretty backdrop of grassy, rotund hills sets off rows of pastel-painted townhouses, while bicycles ply riverside paths and wooden market stalls are laid out with Alpine cheese, speck (cured ham) and dark, seeded loaves. German may be the first language of 95% of the region, but Bolzano is an anomaly. Today its Italian-speaking majority – a legacy of Mussolini's brutal Italianisation program of the 1920s and the more recent siren call of education and employment opportunities – looks both north and south for inspiration.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

Museo Archeologico dell'Alto Adige

Bolzano (Bozen)

The star of the Museo Archeologico dell’Alto Adige is Ötzi, the Iceman, with almost the entire museum being given over to the Copper Age mummy. Kept in a…

Messner Mountain Museum Firmiano

Bolzano (Bozen)

The imposing Castel Firmiano, dating back to AD 945, is the centrepiece of mountaineer Reinhold Messner's six museums. Based around humankind's…

Museion

Bolzano (Bozen)

Bolzano's four-storey contemporary art space is housed in a huge multifaceted glass cube, a brave architectural surprise that beautifully vignettes the…

BZ '18-'45

Bolzano (Bozen)

This dense but visually seductive museum explores Bolzano's turbulent interwar years via the history of the fascist Monument to Victory, where it is sited…

Castel Roncolo

Bolzano (Bozen)

This stunningly located castle was built in 1237 but is renowned for its vivid 14th-century frescoes. These are particularly rare, with themes that are…

Duomo Maria Assunta

Bolzano (Bozen)

This splendid Gothic cathedral is Bolzano's most emblematic building, its imposing spires and polychrome tiled roof backed by the equally Gothic peaks of…